Knee Replacement

Nancy Martin, Hospital of Central Connecticut and New Britain, October 19, 2012

The Joint Center at The Hospital of Central Connecticut will hold a free lecture on partial knee replacement, Thursday, Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m. at the New Britain General campus, 100 Grand St. Orthopedic Surgeon Robert Carangelo, M.D., will discuss who is a candidate for partial knee replacement, the procedure, and what to expect during recovery. For information or to register, or to learn more about knee replacement at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, please call 860-224-5186.

Orthopedic surgeon David Rubins, MD, FAAOS, of Essex, has joined the Bristol Hospital Multi-Specialty Group and Bristol Joint Replacement and Orthopedics. Dr. Rubins' office is located at 25 Newell Road, Suite E-31, Bristol. He comes to Bristol Hospital from Orthopedic Associates of Middletown, PC. He previously had his own independent practice Rubins Orthopedic and Joint Replacementin St. Petersburg, Fla. Dr. Rubins has more than 20 years of joint replacement experience and specializes in minimally invasive hip and knee replacement, computer-assisted total knee replacement and revision total joint replacement.

Orthopedic surgeon David Rubins, MD, FAAOS, of Essex, has joined the Bristol Hospital Multi-Specialty Group and Bristol Joint Replacement and Orthopedics. Dr. Rubins' office is located at 25 Newell Road, Suite E-31, Bristol. He comes to Bristol Hospital from Orthopedic Associates of Middletown, PC. He previously had his own independent practice Rubins Orthopedic and Joint Replacementin St. Petersburg, Fla. Dr. Rubins has more than 20 years of joint replacement experience and specializes in minimally invasive hip and knee replacement, computer-assisted total knee replacement and revision total joint replacement.

Students at Canton High School will hold an open-mic night on May 31 to raise money for an Avon youth who used to live in town and is fighting cancer. The event is from 7 to 9 p.m. and will be at the high school. Admission is $7 and organizers are also having a bake sale. Door prizes will be given out. All proceeds will go to the family of Hunter Miller. Hunter now lives in Avon but used to live in Canton and played in youth sports leagues in town. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in January and in an interview in January, his mother, Deb Miller, said he will need to go through chemotherapy, have part of his tibia removed and a total knee replacement.

At 50, Rosemary Stack was too young to retire to the easy chair, but her aching knees were making the activities she loved painful. She could have found relief in total knee replacement surgery. The operation would have given her about 10 years of comfort. But the Waterbury mother of two grown sons, who suffers from hereditary arthritis, did not like the prospect of reaching her 60s with worn-out replacement parts and few options for ensuring her future mobility. Stack found a solution at Waterbury Hospital, where Dr. Michael J. Kaplan used metal and plastic plates to replace worn-out cartilage that was allowing her bones to rub together, causing her pain.

McLean joined the St. Francis Hospital Comprehensive Joint Replacement Institute in Operation Walk USA. Arthritic disease is the most common cause of disability in the United States and now affects 46 million Americans, or more than 21 percent of the adult population. The debilitating pain of end stage hip or knee degenerative disease makes even the most simple of daily tasks excruciating. Hip and knee replacement surgeries are the most cost-effective and successful of all orthopedic procedures, eliminating pain and restoring patients to active, productive lives.

Students at Canton High School will hold an open-mic night on May 31 to raise money for an Avon youth who used to live in town and is fighting cancer. The event is from 7 to 9 p.m. and will be at the high school. Admission is $7 and organizers are also having a bake sale. Door prizes will be given out. All proceeds will go to the family of Hunter Miller. Hunter now lives in Avon but used to live in Canton and played in youth sports leagues in town. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in January and in an interview in January, his mother, Deb Miller, said he will need to go through chemotherapy, have part of his tibia removed and a total knee replacement.

Former rehabilitation patients returned to Mediplex of Wethersfield this week for the debut of a new program designed to make adjusting to a new life after an illness or an operation easier. Called "Rehab Reunion," the new program invites discharged patients to return once every six months to meet in a relaxed social setting with their former therapists, nurses and fellow patients, said Wendy Coleman, rehabilitation manager for Mediplex. "We wanted to let people know we really care about them, that we took the time to invite them back and know how they were doing," Coleman said.

Hip And Knee Surgery Dr. Robert Carangelo and Dr. Richard Froeb, both orthopedic surgeons at New Britain General Hospital; registered nurse Sandy Pepin; physical therapist Ana Malz; and Evelyn McKay, director of rehabilitation at Southington Care Center, will present a free program on the continuum of care involved in hip and knee replacement surgery, Tuesday at 6 p.m. at New Britain General Hospital in Lecture Room 1. Call 860-224-5695....

On a humid, overcast day last week, AnnMarie DeMonte and I went out running and found ourselves, at one point, toiling up a long, steep hill in Penwood State Park. This would have been an utterly unremarkable feat except for the fact that DeMonte has had a double knee replacement. And she's 68. DeMonte isn't your average 68-year-old. She's an Ironman triathlete, although she retired from that distance when the pain in her knees became too much for her to bear. Now she's training for an Olympic distance triathlon (1,500-meter swim, 40K bike, 10K run)

McLean joined the St. Francis Hospital Comprehensive Joint Replacement Institute in Operation Walk USA. Arthritic disease is the most common cause of disability in the United States and now affects 46 million Americans, or more than 21 percent of the adult population. The debilitating pain of end stage hip or knee degenerative disease makes even the most simple of daily tasks excruciating. Hip and knee replacement surgeries are the most cost-effective and successful of all orthopedic procedures, eliminating pain and restoring patients to active, productive lives.

Robby Brisco doesn't know for sure what will happen next week or next month or next year. In the end, none of us do. The Avon senior did know this much late Thursday afternoon at Fisher Meadows. He was going to put all of his foot into that soccer ball. So as the Avon players huddled before their 4-3 victory over Ellington - Brisco's head sticking above his Falcon teammates - the first rumblings began on the sidelines. As he lined up to kick off, the sound grew fuller along the sidelines.

Nancy Martin, Hospital of Central Connecticut and New Britain, October 19, 2012

The Joint Center at The Hospital of Central Connecticut will hold a free lecture on partial knee replacement, Thursday, Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m. at the New Britain General campus, 100 Grand St. Orthopedic Surgeon Robert Carangelo, M.D., will discuss who is a candidate for partial knee replacement, the procedure, and what to expect during recovery. For information or to register, or to learn more about knee replacement at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, please call 860-224-5186.

By STEVEN GOODE, sgoode@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, January 16, 2012

— Robert Satter, a longtime judge and former state legislator, died Monday. He was 92. Satter, a World War II Navy veteran, made news in 1962 when he won a Democratic primary for a General Assembly seat from Newington by one vote over fellow lawyer Waldemar Lach and followed that up with a one-vote win in the general election over Republican Robert Peyton. The victories won him a nickname as well: "Landslide" Satter. Satter, who had also won a term in the General Assembly in 1958 but lost it in 1960, went on to become a Superior Court judge.

When Dick Beardsley retired as an elite runner, people told him he probably wouldn't want to race anymore. "They said, 'Oh, you'll probably never run again, and if you do, you'll never race again because you'll be so frustrated,' " Beardsley said Thursday. Guess what? They were wrong. Beardsley survived a farm equipment accident in which he broke his back and mangled one of his legs, three car accidents and an addiction to painkillers, which he overcame 13 years ago. He had a knee replacement in January and back surgery in August.

On a humid, overcast day last week, AnnMarie DeMonte and I went out running and found ourselves, at one point, toiling up a long, steep hill in Penwood State Park. This would have been an utterly unremarkable feat except for the fact that DeMonte has had a double knee replacement. And she's 68. DeMonte isn't your average 68-year-old. She's an Ironman triathlete, although she retired from that distance when the pain in her knees became too much for her to bear. Now she's training for an Olympic distance triathlon (1,500-meter swim, 40K bike, 10K run)